


The future

by Port_in_a_Storm



Series: Tumblr prompts [2]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Family, Fluff, Love, M/M, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 08:51:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17659646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Port_in_a_Storm/pseuds/Port_in_a_Storm
Summary: Aaron and Robert talk baby names, the past, and their future





	The future

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all so much for the kudos and the amazingly lovely comments on my previous story! I hope you enjoy this one as well
> 
> This was prompted by an anon, who asked for Aaron and Robert talking about baby names and the surrogacy. I hope you enjoy this, nonnie, and thank you for the wonderful prompt!

‘Solomon.’

‘Yeah right. Hope.’

‘Hard no. Abraham.’

Aaron opens his mouth, about to disagree on instinct. Then he pauses. Abraham. Huh.

Robert smirks, then grins. ‘Good name, yeah?’

_It’s all right, I s’pose_ , Aaron almost says. Except it isn’t. It’s… well, it’s very close to perfect. Can’t let Robert know that though, so: ‘If we have another boy, yeah.’ Robert’s grin is still in place. He sees through Aaron; always has. He nudges Aaron, teasing and knowing.

‘Go on then,’ his insufferable husband says. ‘I get to name the sprog if it’s a boy. You get the girl.’

‘Sprog,’ Aaron says with a shake of his head. Robert’s impossible, and Aaron loves him. On the floor, Seb throws a foam block at the table leg. Instead of gently reprimanding his son, Robert just eggs him on, telling him what a good arm he has. The tiny boy looks up at Robert and smiles, as if he understands every word. It makes Aaron’s heart swell. Robert shifts so that he’s sitting on the ground beside Seb, and reaches for the block, squeezing it twice before handing it back to Seb. Aaron runs his foot up Robert’s arm. Feeling bold, and perhaps just a bit stupid, he says ‘Patricia.’

‘Patricia?’ Robert is too distracted to get it, so Aaron says, ‘Yeah. Shortened to Pat.’ 

The playing stops. Robert doesn’t move. Aaron sits up properly. Robert’s birth mum was something they hadn’t discussed much in the past. But a couple weeks ago, Robert had opened up around the dinner table when it was just him and Aaron, and had told him how little he knew of Pat. And how he wasn’t sure how he felt about their new baby possibly not knowing its surrogate mother if she was across the ocean in California.

‘Aaron,’ Robert says now. 

‘Forget I said anything. Stupid idea. I just thought, y’know, ‘cause of what you were saying the other day… but, no, forget it.’

Seb fusses, probably picking up on the tension between his dads. Robert gets up with their son in his arms and walks around with him until he settles again. Aaron feels like an idiot. They were having such a good few moments as well. The subject of names had only come up because, whilst watching television, Robert had snorted and said, ‘Who’d name their kid Neville?’

‘I didn’t know her,’ Robert says, voice rumbling low in his throat. Aaron looks at him, at the picture he and Seb make: Robert cuddling him close, and Seb playing with the buttons on his dad’s blue shirt. ‘I was a baby when she died.’ He shrugs. ‘It feels… insincere to call our kid after her when I didn’t even know her.’

‘I get that. I think,’ Aaron says. He rises from the sofa when he sees Seb drooling and sucking a wet spot around the buttons. He takes their boy from Robert, afraid that he’ll somehow work a button off with his tiny teeth and gums. ‘I didn’t think about it that way, I guess.’ Seb turns his attention to Aaron’s beard instead, running tiny fingers through it. Thankfully, it’s not quite long enough yet for him to grab and tug at, so Aaron just chuckles. 

‘It’s all right. It was a nice thought. Thank you.’

Aaron can’t resist it. Robert is covered in baby drool, his hair is a mess from leaning back on the sofa for hours on end, and he looks tired from a day of driving to Leeds, Hotten, and then back to Leeds again for meetings. But he looks absolutely beautiful, and they’re talking about their lives together; their future. 

_“Do you ever think about the future?”_ Robert had asked him once, and Aaron had said no. He hadn’t seen a future for himself back then, hadn’t since he and Ed had broken up. Then, Robert came back into his life for good, and here they were: married, in their own home, with a baby, and planning for another. 

Aaron can’t resist it, and he presses a soft kiss to the corner of Robert’s mouth, careful of Seb between them. If Robert doesn’t want to be reminded of his past and how little he knows about it, that’s his choice, and Aaron can live with that. As long as he can be a part of Robert’s present and future, he can live with anything.

**Author's Note:**

> Come have a nosy on tumblr!: [Port in a Storm](http://www.portinastorm.tumblr.com)


End file.
